Ending Homelessness Today

The official blog of the National Alliance to End Homelessness

Time is running out to apply for the Transatlantic Practice Exchange! The Exchange is an amazing opportunity for mid-level homeless service providers to visit a homeless services organization in the UK and learn about their work and best practices. Applications are due on December 18th.

How do we hold ourselves accountable to best practices and improve our rapid re-housing programs without established, evidence-based standards? We use our data! There are a million things we could measure to try and demonstrate our impact, but to truly assess if we are doing what we say we want to do, we simply need to break down WHAT we are trying to do.

November 29, Giving Tuesday, is an opportunity for us all to support the causes we believe in by joining a global movement. On this day of giving we reflect back on the previous year, and look forward to how we can collectively stregthen our communities and improve the lives of children and families.

Communities around the country are implementing extremely successful rapid re-housing practice for a wide range of populations experiencing homelessness. As communities are investing more in rapid re-housing, several have taken rapid re-housing practice to the next level. While practice is improving, especially in communities with experienced providers, many communities and programs still need to standardize their practice.

This year five homeless service providers from the United States, and five from the United Kingdom had the opportunity to study an innovative practice on the other side of the Atlantic. The experience is fascinating and eye-opening for all of the participants, who gain a new perspective on their work.

A little over a decade ago I attended a conference for Community Development Financial Institutions with the theme “Grow. Change. Or Die.” Ouch! It was meant to be alarming, meant to be a wake-up call. It was meant as a call to arms and it worked. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has essentially been throwing down this same challenge to Continuums of Care (CoC). Maybe it’s not a threat. Maybe it’s an opportunity - to Grow, Change and Thrive.

Veterans Day is a time to honor the military service of the many men and women who served in our armed forces. While many return to civilian life with few challenges, some are not as lucky. On a single night in 2016, almost 40,000 veterans experienced homelessness.

The Alliance has released the five key strategies for advancing rapid re-housing. Those strategies are: Build the Evidence, Adopt Standards of Excellence and Practice, Make Rapid Re-Housing Part of Your System, Expand the Role of Partners and Acquire New Resources. This blog discusses the first key strategy, Build the Evidence.

Yes, there’s an election. Please vote, and help homeless people you work with vote. But that’s not all. Your advocacy with Congress can have a big and concrete impact on how many homeless people can access housing. Tell Congress that you care about funding for homeless services by taking the actions in our list below.

On October 21, a new regulation went into effect for shelters funded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that makes clear all individuals seeking shelter should be welcomed and respected in accordance with their gender identity. This rule codifies previous guidance that HUD Secretary Julián Castro announced at our 2015 National Conference on Ending Family and Youth Homelessness.

In our last blog from the Rapid Re-Housing Works campaign, we talked about the five key strategies for advancing rapid re-housing that were discussed at our recent Rapid Re-Housing Leadership Summit. But what are these strategies, and why do they matter?

Jayme Day recently had the opportunity to attend the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO) national conference in New Orleans. The conference was an opportunity for PHAs from across the country to share their knowledge and practice. Here are some observations from the conference for homeless service providers to know.

It’s finally here. The phase of the Rapid Re-Housing Works campaign where we get to start talking about practice. For the next few weeks, our focus is going to be on the fundamentals of rapid re-housing, starting with today’s post on the core components – the gears, I like to say – of an effective homeless response system.

The Alliance asked me to share why a gathering like the Rapid Re-Housing Leadership Summit matters. At Homeward, I talk about homelessness a lot and why data-driven collaboration matters, but today I want to share three reasons why pulling people from across the country together to think about taking rapid re-housing to scale, matters.

In September the National Alliance to End Homelessness convened nearly 100 rapid re-housing champions from around the country to develop a common vision about how we can advance rapid re-housing and discuss emerging knowledge, research and practice on the model. Today we are launching Rapid Re-Housing Works, a campaign that will run through January and focus on the fundamentals of rapid re-housing as well as fresh thinking around adoption and implementation.

Every 20 years the United Nations hosts a conference on Housing and Urban Stability called Habitat. This year is Habitat III, an opportunity to adopt global standards of achievement in sustainable urban development. Read Sam Batko's submission to the United States' report for the conference.

At the end of September, we convened nearly 100 homeless systems leaders, providers, funders and federal agency representatives to develop a common vision about how to advance rapid re-housing as a primary intervention in the homeless system. Next week, we will begin a campaign to raise awareness of rapid re-housing as a solution, and we'll need your help. We want to increase the number of people served across the country, and decrease the number of people experiencing homelessness. But before we get started working toward the future, let’s take a look at the past.